1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tremolo device for a guitar, and more particularly, it relates to a device enabling a smoother handling thereof when the tremolo device is used.
2. Description of the Related Art
A guitar, for example, an electric guitar, equipped with a tremolo device which is manually moved to produce a tremolo effect on musical tones obtained by, for example, plucking the strings, is well-known and widely used. Known conventional tremolo devices include a synchronized device fitted to guitars made by the Fender Company (U.S. Pat. No. 2,741,146), a "Bigsby" device fitted to guitars made by the Gibson Company, and a "Vibramute" device fitted to guitars made by the Mosrite Company, and these tremolo devices have basically similar constructions.
Namely, these devices are provided with springs having a tension almost the same as the total tension of the strings of the guitar, and while an equilibrium is maintained between the tension of the springs and the total tension of the strings, the tones of the strings of the guitar are raised or lowered by moving a rod member, i.e., a tremolo arm, upward and downward in relation to a guitar body, to thus rotate the tremolo device about one fulcrum on the guitar body and thereby vary the tension of the guitar strings.
In one of the conventional tremolo devices mentioned above the fulcrum about which the tremolo device is rotated is provided by two contacts between a flat plate, which receives and anchors strings of the guitar, and two screws screwed into a guitar body. In this device, the flat plate has a knife-edge shaped front end which comes into contact with V-shaped grooves formed on the screws, to lower frictional resistance occurring when activating the tremolo device and to enable a smoother handling thereof.
In such a tremolo device, however, a problem arise in that the knife-edge shaped front end of flat plate is linear engaged with the V-shaped grooves of screws, i.e., a smooth handling of the tremolo device can be realized only when a bottom of a groove of one screw is aligned with a bottom of a groove of the other screw; namely, a height of one V-shaped groove from a top surface of the guitar body must be equal to a height of the other V-shaped groove. Accordingly if the height of one V-shaped groove is not the same as the height of the other V-shaped groove after, for example, the heights of the strings of the guitar are adjusted, or after a thorough overhaul of the guitar, the frictional resistance occurring when using the tremolo device will be remarkably increased to thereby make the handling of the tremolo device uneven and difficult.